Ripples On The Pond

Colossians 3:1-2, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”
From ancient China comes a story about understanding. As the story goes a boy had spent several days building a toy sail boat. He was very excited to play with it and watch is float in the large pond near his home. Everything went well as he launched his boat. The boat stood straight in the water and moved surely as the boy directed it. Then a breeze was caught the sails and the boat began to drift out into the pond and out of the reach of the boy. Feeling he had lost his boat and that all his work would be lost he became frantic to try to get the boat back to shore. Try as he might nothing worked to get the boat to float back to the shore. He began to cry for someone to help him save his boat.
Standing by the shore was another boy who had been watching all that has happened. Hearing the other boy’s cry for help to recover his boat he offered to help. “Yes please help me get my boat back.”, pleaded the boat builder. So the second boy picked up a hand full of stones and began throwing them at the wayward boat. Distressed the boat builder saw the stones falling around his precious boat and he thought this so called friend was mean and trying to destroy his boat. As he watched each stone land just ahead of his boat he noticed that the ripples from the stones hitting the water were pushing the boat back toward the shore. It then occurred to him his friend was not trying to destroy his boat but was in fact saving it.
Sometimes it seems as if God is allowing circumstances to come into our lives that on the surface appear to be harming us or do not fit into our plans. Just as in the story we can be sure the waves of trial are intended to bring us back and closer to God. We are encouraged to set our minds on things above and not on things of this earth. God knows we are prone to drift away from Him so He sends waves to direct us back toward Him. He knows where to throw the stones and just how big the stones have to be to produce the waves to bring us back closer to His loving hands. The winds of doubt and fear will carry us farther away from our creator but the ripples will guide us back home.
Set our eyes on Him and know He will never leave us nor forsake us. God will use waves of trial to draw us closer to Him.